Snohomish's Harwood has successful brain surgery

Panthers forward was suffering from an abscess in her brain

Members of the Jackson girls basketball team show off their support for Snohomish's Callie Harwood ("CH") before their game against Edmonds-Woodway Friday night. The photo was tweeted by Jackson guard Kelli Kingma.

Snohomish girls basketball player Callie Harwood had brain surgery at Children's Hospital in Seattle on Thursday to fix an abscess in her brain. The abscess was discovered earlier in the week after she underwent an MRI in response to her being diagnosed with meningitis.

According to Snohomish girls basketball head coach Ken Roberts, Harwood's doctors said the surgery went well and that she is currently recovering at Children's.

"She is doing fine," Roberts said. "We expect Callie to make a full recovery."

Harwood began feeling ill on Jan. 9 and saw limited playing time in the Panthers' game that night against Kamiak. The junior forward got progressively more sick over the next few days and missed Snohomish's game agaisnt Lynnwood last Friday. When her health didn't improve her family took her to the emergency room on Sunday. It was there that doctors diagnosed Harwood with meningitis, which, along with her severe headaches, prompted the MRI.

"Some people were curious if she was contagious. She was not," Roberts said.

Roberts said Harwood, who was the Panthers' leading scorer going into last week, is not expected to be back on the court this season.

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